Ex-Michigan cop gets life in girlfriend's death

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

SAGINAW (AP) — A disgraced, former Michigan police officer was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole for the strangulation death of his pregnant girlfriend that was intended to appear as a suicide.

Kenneth Bluew also received 65 to 100 years in prison for the death of Jennifer Webb’s unborn son as Saginaw County Circuit Court Judge Darnell Jackson exceeded sentencing guidelines on an assault charge related to the fetus. Under Michigan law, Bluew’s first-degree murder conviction for Webb’s death carried an automatic sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.

“For me to say the evidence of your guilt in this case was overwhelming is an understatement,” Jackson told the 37-year-old Bluew. “You plotted and planned and researched this killing for quite a while before you actually committed it. You decided you were going to do it and you did. You waited for the right time and the right place. It was heinous and cold-blooded.

“Just like you plotted and planned the murder of Jennifer Webb, you by necessity also plotted and planned the murder of her baby. You had to have known that when you killed her the baby was going to also die.”

Webb’s body was found in August 2011 in Buena Vista Township, about 80 miles northwest of Detroit. An extension cord was wrapped around her neck and tied to her vehicle’s roof rack.

Defense lawyer Rod O’Farrell told jurors before his client’s conviction last month that Webb had hoped Bluew would leave his wife.

Webb’s mother, Dawn Webb, read from a letter to Bluew in court before he was sentenced.

“Everyone who trusted you have to live with the horror of this,” she said. “Why God just didn’t strike you dead I really don’t know. Go to your cage and think about how you squeezed the life and breath out of my daughter and grandson, and I hope it haunts you every day for the rest of your life.”

Body found floating in creek north of Detroit

WARREN (AP) — Authorities plan an autopsy on the body of a man found floating in a drainage creek north of Detroit.

The Macomb Daily and WDIV-TV report that the decomposing body was spotted Monday in Warren by people who work in the area.

Officials say the man may have died more than two weeks ago.

Warren Police Deputy Commissioner Louis Galasso says the body was floating on its back “wedged in with other logs, as part of a log jam in the culvert.”

The body was clothed in work pants and a flannel shirt.

Galasso says the area near the ditch is “frequented by homeless individuals, who sometimes temporarily will camp in the wooded area.”

Tests: Body parts in sewer from big white woman

STERLING HEIGHTS (AP) — Officials say DNA tests and an autopsy show that body parts found in a suburban Detroit sewer in August belong to a large white woman.

So far, authorities haven’t been able to identify the victim. Contractors clearing debris from a pipe in Sterling Heights found the 10 parts Aug. 15.

The parts have tattoos that appear to be 15 to 20 years old and don’t include any bones or internal organs.

Authorities sent samples to the University of North Texas, which has a DNA database of unidentified remains.

The tests show that the victim was female, while the medical examiner’s investigation establishes that the victim was big and white.

Police say the DNA results are going into state and federal databases to see if they match a missing person.

120 Mich. infections linked to meningitis outbreak

LANSING (AP) — Authorities are reporting 120 infections and eight deaths in Michigan in a national outbreak of fungal meningitis linked to contaminated steroids from a Massachusetts pharmacy.

The Michigan Department of Community Health reported the new figures Monday.

Michigan’s eight deaths include a Cass County woman whose meningitis was linked to treatments for back pain across the border at an Indiana clinic. Two deaths were from Washtenaw County and one each from Charlevoix, Genesee, Livingston, Oakland and Wayne counties.

The state says one of the deaths was caused by a stroke, while the others were meningitis cases.

The Michigan infections include 51 epidural abscesses and six joint infections related to the same contaminated steroids.

Authorities: Remains of missing man, 84, found

CENTRAL LAKE TOWNSHIP (AP) — Authorities say hunters in Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula have found the remains of an 84-year-old man who was missing since mid-September.

The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports the remains of Winston Gordon were found Sunday in Antrim County’s Central Lake Township, about 30 miles northeast of Traverse City.

Gordon was last seen Sept. 13 at a gas station near Traverse City. He appeared disoriented and asked for directions back to Bellaire.

Authorities say it appears his vehicle got stuck in a secluded area. His remains were found nearby.

Agencies get grants to address obesity in kids

LANSING (AP) — The Michigan Department of Community Health has selected 10 agencies for a pilot program to help improve physical activity and healthy eating for children in kindergarten through sixth grade.

The aim of $915,000 in grant funding is to help address childhood obesity in Michigan. It’s for programs that take place before school, after school and in the summer.

Funding includes an organization in Detroit; school districts in Ann Arbor, Cadillac and Okemos; and YMCAs in the Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Marquette and Ypsilanti areas. The City of Wayne/Westland Parks and Recreation Center is included along with the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan.

The state says the grants aim to help increase physical activity, provide nutrition education and offer a safe place to play and exercise through Sept. 30.

AAA Mich.: Gas prices fall 8 cents from last week

DEARBORN (AP) — AAA Michigan says gasoline prices have fallen roughly 8 cents during the past week to a statewide average of about $3.41 per gallon.

The auto club said Monday the average is about 3 cents per gallon more than last year at this time.

Of the Michigan cities it surveys, AAA Michigan said the cheapest price for self-serve unleaded fuel is in the Traverse City area, where it’s about $3.26 a gallon. The highest average is in the Marquette area at about $3.44.